Options if a Minor Child
in Your
Family is - or
may be - Addicted

The Web
address of this article is http://sfhelp.org/parent/addicted.htm

Updated
01-23-2015

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This is one of a series of articles in online Lesson 6
- learn what typical kids need as they grow, and how to fill their needs
effectively over two decades without neglecting yourself. The range and
scope of major social
problems suggests that
most U.S. parents are failing at
this.

This article is written to family adults and supporters
who worry about a minor child's probable addiction and how that may be
affecting their family. The
article assumes your familiar with...

If
you feel one or more young people in your family are "addicted," you adults
need to answer questions like these:

How can we tell a true addiction from a "bad
habit" or "an obsession"?

What can kids become addicted to?

Why do kids become addicted?

Does childhood addiction differ from adult
addiction?

What is "enabling," and what can we do about
it?

How can we parent an addicted child
effectively?

What if we're a stepfamily?

How Can We Tell a True Addiction
From a "Bad Habit"?

The words "addict" and "addiction" evoke strong emotions in typical family
members, which can hinder effective discussion and problem-solving. So it's
important to know when to use those terms and when to avoid them.
Four variables distinguish "a bad habit" or "an obsession" from a true
addiction:

the degree of personal and
social harm caused by the behavior (minor to major); and...

"obsessions" are repetitive thoughts
about something. "Compulsions" involve repetitive actions. True
addictions are compulsive because they cannot be controlled by logic
or "will power."

Judging these variables is subjective, which promotes disagreement about whether
a child is really "addicted" or not. Such arguments are misleading and
pointless, because harmful habits and addictions are symptoms of the
real problem: major family
dysfunction.

For more perspective, review and discuss these
symptoms of a true addiction:

What Can Kids Become
Addicted To?

The
typical answer is "alcohol and other drugs." They can also become
unhealthily dependent on..

Note that typical hobbies are not
addictions, unless they're compulsive and clearly interfere with health,
education, socialization, and family well-being.

Why do Kids Become Addicted?

Pre-teens and teens in all socio-economic settings
may become addicted because of a mix of powerful factors like these...

all true addictions reliably reduce or distract
from
inner pain, so
"addiction" can be viewed as
unconscious self-medication, not a "character
flaw," "illness," "disease," or "weak will;"

the unrecognized [wounds + unawareness]
cycle causes some couples to conceive kids before they're able to parent
effectively. They create
low-nurturance
(dysfunctional) families which cause their kids psychological
inner pain.

typical psychologically-
wounded people unconsciously choose other wounded people as mates,
so if a child
has one wounded parent, s/he probably has two - and up to four wounded
grandparents. This promotes young kids not getting their needs
met - and inner pain.

typical kids and teens don't know how to
(a) identify
their developmental and
special
needs and (b) ask for adult help in filling them in healthy ways.
This is specially true for children in troubled,
divorcing, step,
and foster families;

acquired cellular craving for some drugs
like nicotine, alcohol, and some street drugs can turn experimental and
recreational use into a compulsive dependence; and...

Do these reasons for kids' addiction make sense to you? How many
average parents do you think could explain these interrelated roots of child
addiction?

Does Childhood Addiction Differ
From Adult Addiction?

Yes
and no. Yes, because kids have less knowledge, authority, resources
(like money), responsibility, different family roles than adults, and fewer
options. Kids can't change their family's nurturance levelby themselves as
their adults can. No, because addiction origins, dynamics, symptoms,
and recovery (sobriety) are the same regardless of age.

What is "Enabling," and What Can We Do About it?

Relative to addiction, enabling means"promoting an addiction
(inner pain) by not admitting or confronting the addict's behaviors and
their effects." So family adults who ignore, minimize, rationalize, joke
about, or intellectualize a child's addiction and what causes it are
enabling their family's dysfunction.

Enabling is a clear symptom
of the real problem: adults'
unawareness
and psychological
wounds. So if any of your
family adults or supporters are enabling a child's addiction, they need to:

be respectfully confronted
by other adults on their wounds and toxic behavior, so they may...

Note that parents controlled by
false selves can
behave paradoxically: they can agree that addiction and enabling are harming
their child/ren, continue to enable their addiction, and deny or excuse
this.

How Can We Parent an Addicted Child Effectively?

If you feel a child is probably or surely addicted, you
family adults need to:

admit and work at
reducing
your
psychological wounds via Lesson 1 or equivalent;

how these unfilled needs rank in
importance short and long term. Then...

negotiate which of your adults are
responsible for filling which needs.

__ If
the child you're concerned about has suffered family separation and
divorce and/or parental (or other) death, assess how well these common
adjustment needs are being met.
Unmet developmental and
family-adjustment needs - including incomplete
grief - cause inner
pain for all family members, This promotes addictions..

__ Help your child to trust that s/he is
loved and important to all you adults, and that you all are concerned
(anxious) about his or her (specific) behavior and welfare. If your
actions don't match your words here (the child doesn't feel
loved, respected, heard, and important), claiming this will increasethe child's hurt, resentment, and distrust (pain).
Word <->
behavior mismatches usually indicate adult psychological wounds.

__ If any of you adults are addicted to
substances, activities, relationships, and/or mood-states, you want the
child to witness (not just hear)meaningful adult
behavior changes. Otherwise you're sending the youngster a
self-defeating double message ("Do as we say, not as we do.")
Double messages suggest false-self domination...

__ Help your child to believe you don't feel
she is bad or wrong for any (specific) addictive
behaviors, and that you adults believe addiction is a family problem
- i.e. that you adults have been doing something that causes the child
pain. This is only true if you feel your family nurturance level
has been too low because of adults'
wounds and
unawareness.

__ Help your child gain a factual,
age-appropriate understanding of "addiction," what causes it, and how it
harms people and their families. Learn about
Al Ateen/Al
Anon, Families
Anonymous,
and similar lay and church support groups, and
consider attending local or on-line meetings. Scan the Web for other resources. As you
do, avoid the outdated attitude that the child
is the problem. S/He isn't. Your family system is the
problem.

__ Help your child know you adults are
responsible for getting your family appropriate
help, and that you're going to do so. That might sound like "So Nina, we
want you to know that we're going to start family counseling, and we
need you to help us by participating."

__ Consider hiring a veteran familycounselorwho knows about
managing addictions and sees them a family problem, not just a
personal one. Your child's school may suggest competent local
practitioners

__ Avoid these impulses with
your child, for they are
signs of adults' wounds and unawareness. They will probably increase her/his
inner pain...

lecturing

preaching

blaming

guilt-tripping

gossiping

explaining

threatening

moralizing

comparing

generalizing

interrogating

catastrophizing

complaining

avoiding

intellectualizing

warning

whining

scorning

minimizing

defocusing

Keep in mind thataddiction is not "rational," and logic will not persuade a
child to
change their self-medication for inner pain.

More suggestions on helping your addicted child...

__ Help your child understand
that you adults
hold her or him accountable for behaviors and choices within her/his control,
and that you're going to set limits (specific consequences) if s/he
chooses to ignore the behavioral limits you set.
Keep in mind that
self-medicating people
need help in hitting true bottom, and that setting and enforcing uncomfortable limits helps to do that.
The toxic alternative is enabling.

__ Stay clear on the difference
between changes and losses(broken psychological bonds).
Inventory the child's major
tangible and
invisible losses across
his or her life. Then evaluate...

Addiction is often a symptom of
incomplete grief + wounded
family adults in denial +
a toxic or ineffective family grieving policy (including no
policy). Review
Lesson 3 for options and resources on healthy grieving.

__ Help each other
to stay
steadily aware of what you
can and cannot control, and to turn over the latter to your
Higher Power. You may also want to ask the help of any religious community you
participate in if it is a high-nurturance (vs. rigid, judgmental, shame-based, or fear-based)
organization.

__ Help each other
and your child learn what causes
guilt (e.g. "I caused my child to become an addict - I'm a bad parent!"), and
learn how to reduceexcessive guilt to normal.

__ If you have other kids in the family, help
them understand in age-appropriate terms what you're trying to do. Teach
them what "inner pain" is. Be
careful not to imply or describe the addicted child as "bad,"
"sick," or
"the problem." You adults are the problem!

Pause, breathe, and notice your thoughts and feelings now. What did you
just learn? Do these helping options seem realistic? Do
you feel comfortable discussing and tailoring them with your family adults and
supporters? If not
- why? Beware just adopting these results as they stand.
For optimal
motivation, you need to define your own helping strategies.

What if We're a Stepfamily?

Typical stepfamily systems are far more complex than intact
biofamilies. They have many more people, relationships, adjustment
tasks, and simultaneous
stressors
- and a higher (U.S.) re/divorce rate. That means that an addicted child will
add stress to a mix of other problems. So
typical stepfamily adults need to: